A resource management system, such as a Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system, can be used to assign resources in response to an incident, event, or occurrence. Such resources can include agencies, responder units, vehicles, and responders themselves, for example. The resources have one or more communication devices associated therewith that are addressable by a separate communication system (such as a two-way land mobile radio system) to which the communication devices are connected. During the course of the incident, a CAD operator may wish to communicate with all or as many of the assigned responders as possible via their communication devices. Such communications can be facilitated using communication methods including, but not limited to, radio console mechanisms such as Instant Transmit, All Points Bulletin (APB) Transmit, Conference Bridge, Communication Bridge, Audio Bridge, Console Patch, Communication Channel Patch, Communication Group Patch, and the like.
However, known techniques for communicating with the responders assigned to an incident involve a number of manual operations on the part of the CAD dispatch operator, which are cumbersome at best and inaccurate at worst. More particularly, the CAD dispatch operators work on the level of dispatch units and lists of responders addressable by the CAD system. The dispatch operators also communicate with those same responders through the separate radio system, which uses different responder identities, communication group identities and voice enabled device identities.
In addition, the communication groups to which the communication devices (used by responders) are affiliated can change for example depending on whether the responders are on duty or off duty, or based on their current task, assignment or role, what incident they are assigned to, etc. Thus, the dispatch operator today is not always aware of which communication groups each responder is affiliated with, especially in cases of medium to large incidents, requiring restructuring of the communication groups and requiring mutual aid resources from outside agencies, and especially since there is no one-to-one mapping between the CAD resource lists and the responders' communication groups. There is, therefore, no easy way to communicate with all of the responders assigned to the incident. Moreover, the assigned resources and associated communication devices and communication groups may dynamically change during the incident making a manual process that much more difficult.
Thus, there exists a need for a method and system for forming an actionable communication resource to facilitate communications with communication devices that are associated with resources assigned by a resource management system, wherein the method minimizes manual activity by an operator of the resource management system.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help improve understanding of various embodiments. In addition, the description and drawings do not necessarily require the order illustrated. It will be further appreciated that certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. Apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the various embodiments so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein. Thus, it will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, common and well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment may not be depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments.